FROM THIS EPISODE

"Extreme weather" has become almost commonplace in the past few years, in the US and around the world. But Americans are increasingly doubtful about climate change caused by human activity. We look at the science and the politics. Also, President Obama makes nice to Wall Street. On Reporter's Notebook, Turkey’s election: secularism and Islam.

Banner image: A herd of antelope look for food in the backburn area of the Wallow Fire on June 11, 2011 in Greer, Arizona. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Turkey has re-elected Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, but he'll need a political coalition to write a new constitution. While Erdogan is wildly popular among the country's poor and the Muslim middle class, secular Turks in urban centers worry about his party, the AKP, and what it could mean for their country. Marc Champion, who's covering the election for the Wall Street Journal, considers the possible changes in a secular state now ruled by an Islamic party.

For years, scientists have predicted that global warming would lead to extreme weather. Sure enough, extremes have become what some call the "new normal." The past decade has seen an increase in human catastrophes caused by unusual weather of different kinds. Arizona's wildfires are the result of a drought, while late snow in the western mountains has led to predictions of massive flooding. But scientists have a hard time saying that a given weather event is evidence of climate change. What's overlooked is that they also have trouble saying it's not. In any case, special interests seize on scientific uncertainty to avoid regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and the public is very confused. Is the real "hoax" climate change or the denial of climate change? We look at an issue that's become as political as it is scientific.

Wall Street may not be popular with voters, especially Democrats, but it's a major force in American politics, and could be crucial to the re-election campaign of a president who's trying to make up with the financial industry he once referred to as "fat cats." Nicholas Confessore reports for the New York Times.